The Virtual Reality Lab (VRlab)

at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) was created in July 1988 and completely organized by its director, Professor Daniel Thalmann. The laboratory includes a staff of 35 people. This group is a world-leading pioneer in research related to Virtual humans since its creation.  We mainly concentrate our efforts on Modeling and Animation of Interactive and Intelligent Virtual Humans. Users are able to interact with these intelligent creatures in Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. We develop advanced models for group behaviour, crowds modelling, social behaviour, and immersive and multimodal interaction within Virtual Enviroments. Our ultimate research objective is the simulation of Virtual Worlds inhabited by a Virtual Human Society, where agents will co-operate, negotiate, make friends, communicate, group and ungroup, depending on their likes, moods, emotions, goals, fears, etc.

Research areas in VRlab:

• Immersive and Multimodal interfaces
• Motion Control and the simulation of high-level behaviors based on physical laws, and captured data using magnetic sensors.
• Artificial Life and Behavioral Animation, with models for autonomy and perception based on virtual sensors (vision, audition and touch).
• Shared Virtual Environments, where avatars and autonomous virtual humans can meet in common virtual spaces.
• Vision and Augmented Reality, to track body motion and combine real and virtual objects.
• Body deformations, both for real-time and realistic medical applications.
• Standards for body description and animation.

VRlab has a strong international cooperation through several European projects in the areas of Virtual Reality, shared environments, Cutural and Virtual Heritage, Computer Animation, and Medical applications, and is also involved in 4 national projects.

Director: Prof. Daniel Thalmann (+41-21-693-5214)
Secretariat: Mrs Josiane Bottarelli (+41-21-693-5215)
Fax +41 21 693-5328